US drones won’t be hacker-proof until 2014
Sydney Morning Herald
December 21, 2009
WASHINGTON: It will take at least until 2014 to encrypt video feeds from the US military’s Predator and Reaper drones to prevent enemy forces from intercepting the information, the air force has revealed.
Reports last week said US forces had discovered that insurgents in Iraq, using $29, off-the-shelf software, had been able to hack into video feeds from the drones, which are used for surveillance and launching missiles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some Pentagon officials initially dismissed the reports, saying this was an old problem that had been addressed.
But the air force has acknowledged the concern. Work on encryption began this year on the fleet, but it saysit will not be finished until 2014.
The army also operates unmanned aircraft and has acknowledged the need to protect the feeds sent from its fleet.
The Wall Street Journal reported that US forces had confiscated a laptop computer from an Iraqi insurgent that contained video files with feeds from drones. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Iraq that although he was concerned about cyber security, there had been no known damage to US military operations as a result of the intercepted information.
Still, former military officials said the failure to protect the video feeds was a serious issue.
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